June's 10 on 10

10 pictures on the 10th day of the month (Sunday).

{Document a snapshot of your life & find beauty among the ordinary things in your day! }

Glorious morning on the porch.

Potential renters/buyers were scheduled to come see our house this evening, so it was all hands on deck to get it ready.

Early morning meeting at church for a Junior Bible Quiz team they are starting. I think Aiden's going to really enjoy it.

Scraping, painting....

...scrubbing...

...playing.

Avery had a soccer game and scored a hat trick!

The game was conveniently located next to a playscape.

J spent the day at orientation for the summer camp she'll be working at. She loved it and was amazed at how friendly and welcoming everyone was. When they broke for lunch, she was absent-mindedly sitting with her food, waiting for someone to say grace (its not a faith camp). The person next to her said, "Aren't you going to eat?" She said, "Oh! Out of habit I was waiting for someone to pray." The guy said, "Well, do you want to pray?" J said, "Sure." and led a prayer over the meal. WOW!

I love the chaos of dinner time. When every one is coming in from their day, telling me stories, getting food on the table. The noise and chatter makes my heart happy.

So does bedtime stories with Aiden and Amanda. :) Life is good.

Project 365, Week 23

I mainly took the fun pictures, but there was also lots of work to the week, trying to get our house ready to rent/sell. Like many, we earn more than $32,000 so that puts us at the top 1% of the world's wealthiest and going through closets and storage areas makes me embarrassed to be an American. It definitely feels good to be clearing out!

We're feeling all the end-of-school feels. Every morning that all the kids get to school, on time even, I feel like we had a major accomplishment. The end is near! :)

June 3

Alayna slept over and these two played girl legos all morning. 

I was asked to take pictures for a photo project at our church's new campus. It was so amazing to see the building and the progress that's been made and to think of all the people whose lives will change because they meet God there. Shaun had two kids at soccer games, so I had these three silly girls.

We stopped at the mall to find a graduation dress for K. I dislike shopping but these girls made it entertaining. :)

June 4
It was a tough day for Shaun as signed closing docs on the sale of his grandfather's house. Lots of memories there.

June 5
So, so thankful for healthy girls.

June 6
Aiden got home from school and promptly changed into his bathrobe, as he often does. He grabbed a stack of books from the donation pile and went to work. When I walked in and handed him a Twizzler, he took a bite, gave a satisfied sigh and exclaimed, "It does not get better than this!" Ha! :)

It was a proud moment for me, but when his dad found him, he encouraged Aiden to put some clothes on and get to work. :)

The girls have been super helpful in getting the house decluttered. They enjoy organizing and I like doing it with them. I tend to give/throw more away when I have to answer to them why the item is so special and must stay with us.

June 7
Super boys!

June 8
Avery's 7th grade class helped put on a dinner/dance for the graduating 8th graders.

Since I was also at that function, I didn't get a picture of Amanda on her first day in youth group. Yes, youth group...talk about crazy!!

June 9
My favorite goalie.

The girls enjoy helping out in the 2 & 3 year old class when I'm the teacher and they're so sweet with the kids. Toddlers and teens...my two favorite ages. :)

Project 365, Week 22

It was a fun, full week. June is always that was, as school and summer overlap. There are necessary things to finish up, such as big projects and finals and field trips and soccer seasons but the weather is lovely and the days are light. So we do the June dance and take it all in.

May 28

Memorial Day was a nice quiet morning, quiet being relative around here. ;)

We stopped at two cemeteries to honor both of Shaun's grandfathers who fought in WWII.

Amy hosted some family from Idaho who we get to see only rarely. My parents are both from the west and nearly all of their family is still there. Growing up, my parents were so faithful to load up the family station wagon and drive out there every other year and I'm so grateful for the connection we have to them because of that effort.

(My dad and his nephew, my cousin).

May 29
No picture.

May 30
When Sloan hospital scheduled my 6-month check-ups for our anniversary day, I decided to just leave the built-in excuse for Shaun and I to spend the day together.  So we headed to NYC and did a full morning of appointments. It was good to see my doctors, people who are so dear to my heart. It was even better to hear them say they are HAPPY with how things look.

It was a beautiful day so we did a lot of walking and hanging out in Central Park.

A couple years ago we came really close to "death doing us part", so now our love is bigger, our hearts are more grateful and we truly see each additional day we have together as a gift. My heart is so full because of the love and life we've shared for 24 married years. God has truly been gracious to us.

May 31
Peonies are in my top three favorite flowers.

After I took the above "Instagram-worthy" photos, I stepped out a little to show what this little section of the yard actually looks like. I think its healthy to sometimes pull back and get a clear picture of what our lives look like....to see the messy, sinful parts that have gone unattended, to acknowledge the things we wished were different but are out of our control. But then to focus in on the beauty, to give thanks for the places that are healed and to realize there is hope for the rest.

June 1
Sarah organized a lovely evening with us SILs....dinner and a show. I don't take for granted that the people in our families are also our friends....we are so blessed.

"Love Never Dies" was marginal, but the evening was delightful.

June 2
Aiden and Pop got their poles wet and Kiki sent me a beautiful capture.

We booked an appointment for a potential renter/buyer to see our house, so we began our first week of Operation Declutter. It feels good to clear out but its also sad.

Amanda and Trevor graduated from Promiseland, to move on to youth group and Renna moved into Promiseland. All the cliches of how are they this big already??

Project 365, Week 21

This was a big house week. We are getting close and are so ready to be done after more than a year of serious looking. Neither one of us is very impulsive, clearly.

While making this massive house/life decision, we also did 6-month CT scans and took in a sweet and traumatized 8 year-old for the weekend. I think God has uniquely gifted Shaun and I to do crazy well. For the good or bad, crazy seems to be our sweet spot and we have a high capacity for doing life at a level of insanity. For God's glory, because it certainly isn't by our own strength! 

May 20

After church we had two house showings, both were a second viewing. While its not the kids' decision, we have chosen to include them in much of the process; both to learn a life skill and as a team-building endeavor.  At our urging they took it very seriously. I peeked out the window and they were going over their pros and cons lists.

House #2. One of my favorite things was the pool and pool house, equipped with a full kitchen and half bath. Awesome teen space!

May 21
The in-between we're in, setting up parts of our life in the new town while still having lots in the old town, means temporarily there is extra running around. We just roll with it!

Amanda spotted a nest with eggs and this day they hatched. 

May 22
High-powered day. Sterling Principle Financial Services had an audit, where non-compliance can mean hefty fines or closure. (We passed with no instances noted! :)

From there, I switched gears to C4 Communications and we had a high-level second interview for a candidate we are looking to hire.


Some days like this one are intense but I love the work I do and am so grateful for it.

May 23
I went to NY (a satellite office, not in the city) for 6-month CT Scans. I wasn't worried, but checking in with Sloan always brings with it a heap of emotions. I'm intensely grateful God chose to give me more days. And I'm pretty good at remembering the past only in bite-size chunks, otherwise I'm quickly overwhelmed.

Freshly reminded how beautiful mundane, every day life is, I took in this U10 soccer game. :)

May 24
The kids figured out if they took the screen out of the bathroom window, they'd have a "bird's-eye view" of the baby birds. Fun for all ages!

As we were driving home from work, we got a desperate call to take a respite (5 total kids is the max without an override, so we don't get many calls anymore). I was going out of town for the weekend, so it was just going to be Shaun with the kids. My answer would've been no, but Shaun didn't bat an eye as he said, "sure, it'll be fine".

You can't help but fall in love all over again with a man who so willingly takes in others' children and then pours love and care into him.

May 25

May 26
Super Dad took six kids to a DCF-sponsored amusement park for the day, by himself.

May 27
Closing in on a house decision, very ready to "land this plane", we viewed two on this rainy day. The finished basement proved to be a big hit with the kids. :)